The present invention relates to gift card transactions, and is particularly directed to a gift card account system and methods of a merchant processing a gift card.
The use of a gift card by a gift card recipient purchasing goods from a merchant is known. Typically, the gift card recipient presents the gift card to the merchant during a transaction in which the gift card recipient purchases goods or services from the merchant. The total payment due for the purchase transaction is then deducted from the gift card. A drawback in using a gift card is that the gift card recipient needs to carry the gift card in his/her possession so that the gift card can be presented to the merchant during a purchase transaction. This may be cumbersome, especially if the gift card recipient has a multiple number of gift cards, since the gift card recipient would be carrying these gift cards in his/her wallet or purse.